Revolution (2009)

Somehow making the quantum leap between Battlestar Galactica and The Grapes Of Wrath without falling flat on its face, Revolution offers science fiction ripe with possibilities.

While introducing the idea of intra-national colonialism, it is equally concerned with how we're going to feed ourselves in the future and where the military-industrial complex is taking us. It also touches on the issues of cloning, identity tagging and, unsurprisingly, revolution.

But if that all sounds a bit grand and preachy, it's mainly a story of family dysfunction. Make no mistake, Revolution is a soap opera.

It signals its intentions from the off with military veteran Colonel Tom Hart (Campbell) explaining the art of agriculture to a group of schoolchildren. They could be in any cornfield in Kansas. Then a flotilla of spaceships fly overhead.

It's 200 years from now and they are in New America, an outpost governed by the US on Earth but situated half a galaxy away. But the rise of smuggling and political unrest, plus the hit-'em-hard policy of the regional military commander, has put the colony under threat of martial law.

Like every good citizen, Tom is willing to help the newly arrived governor (Rowena King) sort it all out. But as the widowed father of three strong-willed offspring, he has enough on his plate at home.

Teenage daughter Emily (Maiara Walsh of Desperate Housewives) is in her rebellious phase. Eldest son Chris (Steve Sandvoss) is tired of managing the family business and spends too much time with his manipulative grandfather Lawrence (Peter Fonda). And Tom's dear, old psychic mother has just had a terribly troubling vision.

The good news is that prodigal, eco-warrior son Will (David Colin Smith) has returned to claim his childhood sweetheart Roxanne (Brooklyn Sudano). The bad news is that Roxanne is now engaged to marry Chris.

Throw Lawrence's hussy of a second wife and their no-good son into the mix, and the Harts make the families of King Lear and Hamlet look like The Waltons.

Doing exactly what a feature-length appetiser should, Revolution clearly establishes its fundamental ideas while putting flesh on all the key characters (though Smith's Will could have been meatier).

And despite the odd colossal spaceship, Revolution brings its futuristic technology into predominantly rural New America with admirable subtlety.

Of course, it's likely that the effects budget wouldn't have kept the crew of Avatar in biscuits. But imagine the planets of Tattooine or Naboo from Star Wars with fewer freaky aliens and more interesting politics and you get the picture.

Whether viewers, and thus the moneymen behind it, have the courage to stand by its bold convictions remains to be seen.

Elliott Noble